Senior Program Coordinator

Job Description/Responsibilities: 

Senior Program Coordinator

December 2015

IRC Ethiopia seeks a Senior Program Coordinator (SPC) who will be responsible for the oversight and management of the Program Department’s Grants and cross-cutting units (e.g. Monitoring, evaluation, and learning (ME&L), Partnerships, Participation). A well-rounded SPC is required to work across IRC Ethiopia’s large, complex, multi-sector country program portfolio on development, coordination, accountability, and learning related to our programming. The SPC will report directly to the Country Director (CD) and work closely with the Deputy Director of Programs (DDP). The position will directly manage up to five staff and will be based in Addis Ababa, but require travel to the field.

DETAILED DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Programming:

Investigate opportunities to expand existing programming and new opportunities for programming, as per the relevant IRC Ethiopia country and sectoral strategies.
In coordination with DDP, assist IRC program technical sectors to develop holistic, long-term program planning.
Identify synergies among program technical sectors and liaise with operational units to contribute to high-quality, effective, and efficient program coordination and project management.
Coordinate with technical teams and other departments to ensure the cross-cutting units/components are considered, involved in, and feed into programming at relevant points in the project cycle.
Coordinate among relevant units/departments to ensure that the Grants Unit receives required inputs in a timely fashion in the process of new proposal development and donor reporting.
Supervise and coordinate sub-granting and partnership processes in support of IRC Ethiopia’s partnership initiatives, with particular focus on local partners. This includes oversight of and guidance on streamlining sub-granting/partnership tools and processes.
Ensure roles and responsibilities of cross-cutting sector staff are clarified and re-defined as necessary to better meet the needs of the program.
Maintain an in-depth knowledge on donor and government policies and strategies.

Proposal Development:

Oversee the Grants Coordinator to facilitate quality concept notes and proposals for all IRC Ethiopia programs.
Final sign-off on all funding proposals, with a supportive role in proposal development and leading processes as needed.
Maintain in-depth knowledge of IRC internal policies, and guidelines for donor organizations funding IRC Ethiopia projects.

Monitoring, Accountability, and Learning:

Oversee ME&L and Grants staff to identify and address needs for project monitoring and reporting strategies/templates; as well as to design/improve upon and implement processes related to data quality (including qualitative) and documentation/communication of program learning.
Oversee partnership staff to ensure that IRC implementing partners’ projects are tracked and evaluated, and that updates on partners/sub-grants are communicated in a timely and professional manner to appropriate stakeholders.
Support multi-departmental tracking/monitoring tools and processes where relevant to contribute to overall improvements to and streamlining of IRC operational and project tracking systems.
Coordinate with senior management, technical sectors, operations, and grants unit to recommend and/or work through approaches to grant/budget amendments.
Facilitate key information-sharing (internally and among partners where appropriate).

Capacity Building:

Provide on-the-job mentoring to Grants, Program Quality Monitoring, and Cross-cutting Unit staff to build their capacity to produce high-quality documents meeting IRC Ethiopia and donor standards; identify capacity building needs of these units and match them with available opportunities within and outside of IRC when applicable/feasible.

Liaison and Special Tasks:

Liaise with national and district authorities, donors, NGOs, and other operational partners in Addis Ababa including through attendance at scheduled and ad hoc meetings and consultations upon the CD’s/DDP’s request, and represent IRC and IRC’s interests by maintaining positive and constructive relations.
Oversee the development, finalizing, and use of various communications materials (e.g. briefing papers, brochures, info sheets, capability statements, posters, others) to improve IRC Ethiopia's program visibility and share information on project successes.

Ensure that field, program technical, and operational staff are aware of all relevant donor communication, changes in donor regulations, and meetings or conferences.
As needed, act as a liaison with IRC head offices (NY and UK).
Ensure program electronic files are organized and up-to-date.
Supervise and complete special projects as assigned by the CD/DDP that may fall outside of this job description, including assisting with hosting delegations affiliated with IRC, donors, or other parties visiting IRC the request of the CD/DDP.

REQUIREMENTS:

Excellent English writing skills are mandatory and the most important qualification sought for this position.
Experience writing and coordinating high-value proposals for major donors (USG, UN, EU, etc).
Experience developing budgets for major donors (USG, UN, EU, etc).
Program development experience mandatory, including development of key project documents such as logical frameworks, monitoring tools, etc.
Experience directly supervising diverse teams.
Masters degree in relevant field from a recognized university.
Minimum of three years experience in an international NGO in similar role/with similar responsibilities.

Personal specifications:

Ability to work under pressure, long work hours, and high workload.
Ability to independently organize work and prioritize tasks.
Self-motivated, honest, highly responsible, and punctual.
Ability to work both independently and as part of a team.